How to Tune Your Guitar using Reference Pitches (Beginner Guitar Lesson ES-010)

In this guitar lesson I'll show you how to tune your guitar using reference pitches, probably the easiest way and the way most beginner's start tuning, however, I strongly recommend that all beginner players buy a tuner!! There are helpful links on my web site!

Taught by Justin Sandercoe.

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Have fun :)

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Hi, how you doin' ?

Justin here. Today we're gonna be talking about how to tune your guitar using reference pitches.

Now by reference pitches I mean that you're going to be getting the sound source from somewhere else, i.e. not a tuner kind of thing.

Now this could be for loads of different reasons, for a lot of people it's the first way they learn to tune their guitar,

you know that, got a web site where you get a pitch pipe, like a little harmonica thing

where you blow into and it plays the one note which should be one of the notes you oughta

tune your strings to, that's what I had when I was growing up before I could afford an electronic tuner.

And, but there are the times too like when you're playing with a piano and the piano is not in tune.

And you can't expect the piano player to retune themselves to your guitar

even if you're in tune with the tune or whatever, so you need to learn how to tune from another source.

Now, really the only thing you need for that

is to be able to know the names, the note names of your strings.

Maybe many of you know that already, but those of you who don't,

starting from the thickest string, it's an E,

A, a D, a G, a B, and an E.

Now it's really important that you remember those note names of course, there's a whole lesson

on that using funny little rhymes and stuff.

So go and check out the web site if you're not familiar with the names of the notes

of the strings. But what you need normally, you need to ask someone to give you a note

so you'd say "Hey man, can you give me an E so I can tune up, please ?"

And they're gonna play a note E.

But, on the guitar there are lots of different Es, what we call different octaves.

So, this is an E, this in an E. And even though they're both Es, and you could

in theory tune one off of the other, if somebody gives you an E and it's way

different to the one you're expecting, you could always ask that they give you

a lower E, or a higher E.

Sometimes it might not be possible, sometimes it will be, OK ?

If you're using a pitch pipe, you have two Es on them.

One will be the lower one, one will be the higher one.

So if you play one and it's really high, then it will be the one used for your thinner string,

and if it's kinda low, it will be the one used for your thicker string.

Now you can also use this reference pitching like on my web site,

I've got little sound files for you, so if you wanna tune up you just hit the one that says E

and it'll play the E note a few times.

But there's also a little bit of technique involved with this

that I want to mention to you, so, one thing you wanna do

is not try and play at the same time as the reference pitch.

Like it always gets a little confusing. So what you wanna do is you go :

"Hey, man, give me an E" or you play an E if you're using my web site or whatever you

hit to play on the E button, you listen to the note

and then you play your note. And you try and listen to whether your note needs to go up or down.

Right ? Sometimes it can help to sing it.

So, say, if I'm tuning the pitch A, I'll just detune this a little bit,

you say, "Give me an A", and I've heard that and then I play mine,

A bit low !

Oh it's lower !

One trick that I use all the time is I sing the note, so

Is that on tune ?

So learning to sing one pitch and hold it kinda steady while you tune up is

not a bad little trick for it either.

You don't have to ! Right, I didn't do the singing part for many years actually to tell you the truth.

I was just kinda, you know, struggling along with my kazoo pitch pipe things

and I play a note and fiddle about.

Now it takes practice.

Lot of guys kinda get a bit disappointed that they couldn't tune up straight away

but tuning the guitar takes practice, just like everything else,

like getting chords, and learning scales, and getting your picking grip, and that sort of stuff

takes practice, so don't be disappointed if you can't tune your guitar straight away.

Now if you're a beguinner, which I suspect

many of you will be watching this video, I strongly recommend that you get a guitar tuner.

It's relatively inexpensive these days, and it means that when you play your guitar,

when you're practicing then it's gonna sound nice. Right ?

So if you can afford to, get yourself an electronic tuner, any electric tuner, right ?

It's a lot better idea than trying to do it by reference pitches.

Reference pitches, great idea, useful skill to learn as is a couple of the other techniques

that I'm gonna show you later on in this series, but really, if you're a beginner,

get yourself a tuner, it's a really good idea.

So, I hope that helps you, in your quest to get your guitar in tune, and I'll see you in plenty more

guitar lessons very soon. Take care of yourselves, bye bye.